About This Site AgileData.org: Techniques for Disciplined Agile Database Development
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The purpose of this site is two-fold.  First, to share leading edge techniques for data-related software development issues.  Data is clearly an important aspect of any business system, and data management is a critical task for all organizations, so therefore data-related issues are something that all software professionals must take into consideration.  Second, it was a working site for my now award-winning book Agile Database Techniques, and for Refactoring Databases, and I'd love to hear any feedback that you may have as I publish material to this site. 

Over the years I have written a fair amount about how to use object and relational database technology together, and in general how application developers and data professionals can work together effectively.  At the technical level I have written two very popular white papers entitled Mapping Objects To RDBs and The Design of a Robust Persistence Layer for RDBs.  I've also written several books that covered critical object/data issues, including The Object Primer 3/e which describes how to build business applications from the point of view of a developer and co-authored Mastering EJB 2/e (I wrote the complex persistence material).  In both of those books I apply the Unified Modeling Language (UML) for data modeling.   Most recently I co-wrote Refactoring Databases: Evolutionary Database Design which addresses how DBAs can evolve database schemas just as application developers evolve their object schemas.  

At a higher level I've also written about process-related issues, discussing patterns for how to go about data-related development on an OO project in my book Process Patterns.  I've also focused on process issues, at least within the scope of Rational Unified Process (RUP) projects, in the books The Unified Process Elaboration Phase and The Unified Process Construction Phase.  Those two books are part of a four-book series that describes the Enterprise Unified Process (EUP), books that include new material as well as important articles published in Software Development magazine.  I've also written about cultural/organization-related as well, in particular the articles Crossing The Object Data Divide Part 1 and Crossing The Object Data Divide Part 2 are interesting.

What I hadn't done, until this effort, is write a single book focused on how to be effective at data-related software development.  Some of the more interesting questions that I address in Agile Database Techniques include:

• How can application developers and data professionals work together effectively?
• How can enterprise issues, such as shared enterprise architectures and naming conventions, be taken into account by development teams in an agile manner? 
• How can techniques such as Database Refactoring be used to support an iterative and incremental development approach by data professionals?  
• What modeling guidelines should you consider following?  
• What fundamental data skills should all developers have?
• What design patterns should you apply when mapping objects into relational databases?  
• How does XML and web services fit into the overall picture?
• How do you deal with legacy data sources in an effective manner?

In short, this site is dedicated to sharing effective practices, not questionable theories.